Researchers have claimed that teenagers with emotional and behavioural problems could be stopped from binge drinking if they undergo mental health therapy.

According to charity Action on Addiction, around six in every 10 11-15-year-olds in England say they drink, while around 5,000 teenagers are admitted to UK hospitals for alcohol-related problems every year.

Scientists from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry worked in partnership with Canadian institutions The University of Montreal and Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre to gather information about the effectiveness of counselling on ‘high risk’ teen drinkers.

2000 ‘high risk’ young people suffering from emotional or behavioural problems were selected from 21 schools around London and monitored for two years. All volunteers were aged between 13 and 14 and had certain personality traits in common, including high levels of anxiety,...

A national newspaper is planning to publish an article about the stress of Christmas and the festive season on relationships, and are looking for a case study of a couple who either split at Christmas or nearly did and worked through it.

The article is due to be published between the Christmas and New Year period.

If you are interested in getting involved, please submit your contact details using the following form:

A new report by leading mental health charity YoungMinds has claimed that teachers and GPs are seriously out of their depth when it comes to discussing self-harm with young people in the UK.

NHS figures suggest a steady rise in hospital admissions in England for self-harmers under the age of 25, indicating that more support and understanding needs to be put in place to help those affected.

22,555 young people were treated for self-harm injuries in 2001, compared with 38,000 in 2010.

The YoungMinds report compiled information from 2,500 GPs, teachers, teenagers and parents from across the UK to investigate attitudes towards self-harm.

Over half of the 200 GPs interviewed for the study felt they did not understand why someone would want to hurt themselves, while over 80% said they had not had enough training to deal with patients who self-harm.

In addition, many teachers felt more comfortable discussing drugs and sex with their...

New to cinemas this month is ‘Hope Springs’, a comedy following the lives of Kay (Meryl Streep) and her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) as they embark on one week of intensive marriage counselling in a bid to revive their floundering marriage.

In a recent Telegraph interview, ‘Relate’ counsellor Paula Hall explained just how accurate the film is, and how closely the lives of Kay and Arnold mirror the lives of her own clients.

“There’s a very moving scene in which Meryl Streep dresses up seductively but her husband doesn’t notice,” she said. “It’s a moment many of my clients have had, realising they have become invisible to their partners. I see so many couples who are best friends and run a very efficient home, but they no longer see each other in a sexual way.”

After being with someone for a number of decades, it can become difficult to define exactly what is wrong with the relationship. Passion is...

For the first time on record, the number of women in their fifties and sixties dying from accidental drug overdoses and drug related suicides is higher than that recorded for women in their twenties.

In addition to the above, figures have also revealed that the rate of deaths in older women recorded this year, is higher than the rate recorded for younger women last year – and is significantly higher than it was just a few years ago.

The Office for National Statistics who are responsible for the figures, also said that whilst female levels of drug misuse have increased, levels in males have fallen during the past year.

Director of delivery at the National Treatment Agency, Rosanna O’Connor, has said the statistics show that fewer and fewer people are now dying from the most dangerous drugs. However, she went onto say:

“It is the over-40s, typically in poor health from a lifetime’s drug use, who are at greater risk of...

Sex attack counsellors from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) have pleaded for an increase in funding after an 11% rise in the demand for support.

Last year the RCNI provided support to 2,541 individuals, an 11% increase since the previous year.

Altogether, the counsellors working at the centre provided a staggering 20,727 hours worth of counselling support to men, women and children – most of whom were seeking support after experiencing sexual violence.

The year before also saw an increase in the number of individuals getting in touch with the service, with 2011 reporting a 9% rise since the previous year – suggesting that the need for services such as RCNI is actually growing and not diminishing.

Chairwomen and director of Rape Crisis Midwest, Miriam Duffy, has urged health minister Dr James Reilly not to put a stop to the funding.

Duffy explained how it already takes a great deal of courage and strength for a survivor to...

Pinterest is a ‘virtual pinboard’ – a site that allows users to post pictures of anything they like onto their own unique profile page.

The mood-board style layout enables people to organise their lives visually, offering a new and creative way to plan things such as weddings or redecoration projects. Family and friends are able to comment on pictures of colour schemes, themes and ideas, making it a truly social experience.

However, as with all online communities, there is an inevitable dark side to Pinterest.

Now reports show that people with eating disorders are using the site to upload and search for pictures advocating thinness – including pictures of uneaten food and particularly thin role models.

As a result, Pinterest has now blocked certain search terms, including ‘thinspo’ (short for ‘thinspiriation’) the term which describes the glorification of unhealthy body image.

A study carried out on behalf of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) has discovered that almost 200,000 elderly men in Britain are living in isolation and loneliness, but are too proud to admit it and seek help.

WRVS chief executive David McCullough has stressed that many elderly men are going through unnecessary suffering because of a “stiff upper lip” approach to their problems.

The results of the research revealed that a staggering 36 per cent of men described themselves as being either lonely or very lonely – often going for some time without interacting with anyone on a face to face level. Among women, this rate was slightly lower at 31 per cent.

Half of the men surveyed also admitted to having had feelings of depression, though three quarters had never sought any form of help for this.

We know from previous research that loneliness can be extremely debilitating not just to our mental health, but also to our physical...

According to a new study, people who wake up early in the morning are happiest.

The saying goes ‘the early bird catches the worm’, and if these results are anything to go by then the old philosophy that those who get up early fare better could ring true in reality.

After carrying out extensive research, experts have reached the conclusion that those of us who rise early in the morning are generally more satisfied with our lives than those who are considered to be ‘night owls’.

Researchers from the University of Toronto found that those with a preference for waking late and remaining active throughout the evening found it more difficult to adjust to life’s schedule and consequently experience a level of “social jet lag” – a term used by experts to describe a person’s biological clock being “out of sync” with social activities.

Interestingly the study also revealed that most individuals tended to wake earlier the older they grew – leaving...